Indian agriculture is at crossroads and the need of the hour is not only to make farming as profitable venture to attract and retain those who want to quit farming but also enhance agricultural productivity and hence income to solve the issue of disguised unemployment in agricultural work force of India. The possible solution to this problem can be skill development in agricultural sector. Although the techniques developed and mechanization came to rescue of farmers but not to the desired level but attracted the attention to develop skill in agriculture sector. India is short of skilled human resource in agriculture and we are still performing with traditional knowledge.
The book on “Skill and Entrepreneurship in Agriculture” has been divided into two sections viz.; (1) Basics of skill and entrepreneurship and (2) Prospective areas of skill and entrepreneurship in agriculture with a total of 41 chapters. The book is primarily aimed at providing comprehensive knowledge and information on different aspects of skill and entrepreneurship development in agriculture. It would be useful to students, un-employed youths, teachers, field functionaries, planners and enlightened farmers all over the world.
Dr. Lokesh Gupta, Associate Professor, is presently working as Head, Department of Animal Production, Rajasthan College of Agriculture, Maharana Pratap University of Agriculture and Technology, Udaipur. Dr. Gupta completed his Masters in 2000 with Gold Medal and doctorate degree in Animal Production in 2003. Dr. Gupta has 17 years experience and fulfilled the mandate of teaching, research and extension. His area of interest is organic poultry farming, feeding of area specific mineral mixture and production and utilization of azolla in the diets of dairy animals and poultry. He is a recipient of several awards including Bharatiya Govansha Sambardhan Pratishthan Award in Animal Energy by Indian Society of Agricultural Engineering (ISAE), New Delhi; Best Paper Award by International Congress for Animal Reproduction, Vancouver (Canada); Best Teacher Award by MPUAT, Udaipur and many more by different National level organizations. He has published more than 50 research papers, 6 books, manuals, book chapters, articles and documentaries. He is associated with 18 externally funded projects. Dr. Gupta has organized many programmes for skill and entrepreneurship development in Agriculture including workshops/seminars/summer/ winter schools for the students, rural youths and faculties of State Agricultural Universities and Research Institutes of the country. He has visited Vietnam, Canada and Australia for presentation of research papers and as a part of delegation for exploring the opportunities of research and teaching exchange programme.
Dr. Amit Kumar has completed his doctorate degree in Agronomy in 2018 and presently working as Research Associate (NAE, ICAR) at Maharana Pratap University of Agriculture and Technology, Udaipur, Rajasthan. He has worked on forage crops like Lucerne, sorghum, barley and integration of nutrient with term of productivity and residual effect of nutrient on forage crop production with quality parameters. Dr. Kumar has received best paper/poster awards in various national and international seminar/conference. He has published over 10 research papers in reputed national and international journals/ proceedings beside several technical articles and book chapters.
Dr. Suriti Gupta has completed her doctorate degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering in 2014 and presently working as faculty in department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, College of Technology and Engineering, MPUAT, Udaipur. Previously she worked as Professor and Principal, Maharaja College of Engineering, Udaipur (Rajasthan). Her area of interest is Traffic and Congestion Control in ATM Networks; DSP controller based matrix converter for induction motor drive, etc. She is recipient of four awards by The Institution of Engineers (India), Udaipur Local Centre (Rajasthan). Dr. Gupta has published more than 20 research papers in reputed National and International journals and proceedings.
Dr. Rekha Vyas, Professor, Resource Management and Consumer Sciences, presently working as Associate Director, Communication Centre and as Associate Director, Research. Started her career in 1989 and has served the University for 31 years and fulfilled the mandates of teaching, research and extension. She had been Research Advisor to 25 Post-graduate and 6 Ph.D. students. Published 45 research papers, 5 books besides several technical bulletins, manuals, popular articles and book chapters. Member of State Core Group on Women for formulation of Rajasthan State Policy on empowerment of women. Editor of University monthly magazine ‘Rajasthan Kheti-Pratap’ and all other University publications. Organised Orientation Courses and ICAR sponsored summer/winter schools as Coordinator. Attended three International Conferences in Malaysia, Sri Lanka and India, more than 40 national workshops, conferences, seminars and trainings. Recipient of Kamla Award for Best Paper published in Indian Journal of Training and Development. Recipient of MPUAT Vice-chancellor award in 2012 and 2013, Fellow award-2018 from Society of Agricultural Professionals, Appreciation Award for chairing the session at International Conference held at Colombo, Sri Lanka and was Scientific Reviewer of International Conference AGRICO-2019. Entrusted the responsibility of University Coordinator of Entrepreneurship Development Cell.
